vaisseau

Pronunciation

• IPA: /vɛ.so/^[1]
• IPA: /ve.so/^[1]

Forms

vaisseau m (plural vaisseaux)^[1] Old French veissel (about 1120), vaissel (about 1155), vassel (about 1200, until the 15th century), vessiau (1360); vaisseau from the 14th–15th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French vaissel, inherited from Late Latin vāscellum (“small vessel; cinerary urn; dishes”), a variant of classical vāsculum (“small vessel”), diminutive of vās (“vessel, pot”) (see vase).^{[5][2][6][3][1]} Littré notes that in Late Latin the noun for a vessel could also mean a ship.^[7]

Cognate with Italian vascello, Old Occitan vaisselh and Catalan vaixell.^[7][1] vaisselle “dishes” comes from the same Latin word.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cambridge Psalter (about 1120) has veissel for a coffin, a sense kept in some dialects until the 18th century; the Oxford Psalter has vaissels de mort “weapons of death”, translating vasa mortis.^[4][2][5]

Semantic evolution

Wace (about 1150) uses it for any vessel, especially for liquids, a sense that aged in the 17th century, when vase and later récipient replaced it; it also meant a vat or cask until Middle French.^[5][2] After Latin vas electionis, vaissel d'election (about 1190) was a person chosen by God, and un pauvre vaisseau a good-for-nothing (1704).^[2]

By likeness to a wooden cask, vaissel named the hull of a large ship (about 1195), and gradually replaced nef for a large seagoing ship, especially a warship: vaisseau de haut-bord (1671), vaisseau amiral (1680).^[2][6] It also took from nef the sense of the long interior space of a church (about 1680).^[2][6] Le vaisseau de l'État dates from 1789 (and about 1622), brûler ses vaisseaux “to burn one's boats” from 1816, and vaisseau spatial from 1960 (vaisseau volant “airship”, 1720).^[2][9][5] In anatomy it is a vessel carrying body fluids (1314, Mondeville), the blood vessels from Descartes (1637), and in botany a vessel carrying sap (1694).^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Veissel “coffin”, in the Cambridge Psalter.^[4][2]
• c. 1150 – Any vessel, in Wace.^[5]
• c. 1195 – The hull of a ship.^[2]
• c. 1207 – A ship, in Villehardouin.^[4][7]
• 1314 – An anatomical vessel, in Henri de Mondeville.^[5]
• 1637 – Blood vessels, in Descartes.^[5]
• 1789 – Le vaisseau de l'État.^[2]
• 1816 – Brûler ses vaisseaux.^[2]
• 1960 – Vaisseau spatial.^[5][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large ship, especially a warship: vaisseau de guerre, capitaine de vaisseau.^[10][1]
2. Vaisseau spatial: a spaceship.^[1][5]
3. (anatomy, botany) A vessel carrying blood, lymph or sap: vaisseaux sanguins.^[10][1]
4. (architecture) The interior space of a large building, the nave of a church.^[5][2]
5. (archaic) A vessel, container for liquids.^[10][5]
6. Brûler ses vaisseaux: to burn one's boats.^[2]

Related words

• vaisselle
• vase
• vasculaire
• Latin vāscellum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert